S.F. tech founder says 84-hour workweek approach is ‘because I’m San Franciscan’

Cocaine.

According to their posting, their high-end for SWE is $175k/year. They're considered "exempt" salaried employees, so, they get no overtime. This means that they are getting paid at the same rate as someone making about $80k/year, with far less time to see to their basic needs and forced to work in office in an area with high traffic, so, probably minimum of 45 min either way (longer if mass transit) making it closer to $65k with the uncompensated transit time.

Yes, it's exploitation.